Thursday, November 19, 2009

THe Shift in Association

In both articles, the idea of queerness appears to mean a lot of things. From Queer Nation’s definition of being “politically radical and ‘in-your-face’” to Annamarie Jagose’s definition of “the focuses on mismatches between sex, gender and desire.” To me, it was hard to follow the two articles because there are many definition of queerness, not to mention what it is: an identity? A political stance? A man? A woman?

However, Doty, in his book, does use the word queerness to relate to “any expression that can be marked as contra-, non-, or anti-straight.” What is interesting to me is his exploration in the shift of how gay men view the (idolized) women in their lives. Throughout history, feminine gay men had idolized women star and Doty refutes that this is because of “envy, jealousy, misogyny, and cruelty” (qtd. in Doty). He asserts that as we moved into the 80s, Madonna becomes a gay icon and she is not like past idolized starlets because she is “not a vulnerable toy.” I don’t want to start any controversy by saying that Lady Gaga is the new Madonna. But I can associate Lady Gaga with the idea that she too is not vulnerable. Furthermore, while Perez Hilton is not really a effeminate gay (well, I guess I have seen photos of him in a dress, does that count?), he is at the forefront of the gay community in his support for Lady Gaga, who he calls his “wifey.” From his blog posts, you can tell that he truly appreciates her work and his invested a lot of his time promoting her (whether out of love or of business opportunities, I don’t know). My point is, he is quite obsessed with her.

Here is a photo of him dressed up as her for Halloween:Further, Doty expresses that gays are now “directly expressing desire for male images on screen.” This is a shift from previously expressing desire through women stars. Perez Hilton, on his blog, also exemplifies this point. He always write blog posts about the up-and-coming male stars who he deems as “cute” or “hot” and expressing his wish for them to be his “boy toy.” For example, one of his current “boy toy” obsession is Zac Effron.

Perez likes to draw hearts around Zac Effron and pronounces that he is "seksi:"